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An outpost at the intersection of Life and Disney

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Last weekend we found ourselves watching Fantasia 2000 on DVD - and it reminded me just how much I enjoy this film.

Although I have dim memories of seeing the original Fantasia in the theater as a youngster, I became a fan of the movie by first becoming a fan of it's music.

Those of us of a certain age can remember when home audio was being revolutionized by the introduction of the Compact Disc. I bought my first CD player back in the summer of 1986, and one of the very first things I bought for it was a two-disc soundtrack from Fantasia:

As I watched Fantasia 2000 again this weekend it struck me that these films seem to achieve a sort of elegant innocence by letting beautiful music and pure visual storytelling carry the show.

Walt Disney gave the world many gifts. Perhaps the most profound and lasting thing Walt gave me was an appreciation for classical music - through Fantasia. (Thanks, Walt).I wonder if we will ever see another film like Fantasia. "The Concert Feature" (as it was originally known) was supposed to be the start of an evolving series. The world waited almost six decades to see the second installment - and then only through the efforts of Mr. Roy E. Disney.

I hope that some day we'll all have a chance to see more Disney fairies like these:

Although limited in scope and scale, this area seems to echo some of Pixar's creative spirit. To paraphrase John Lasseter, Pixar films are built on a three-prong foundation: story, characters, and environment. Pixar's "A Bug's Life" delivers all three, and DCA's "A Bug's Land" allows us to step into the environment and take closer look at some of it's memorable characters.